Law or policy reform enabling automatic acquisition of nationality Law or policy reform enabling automatic acquisition of nationality Sri Lanka 8 • Political awareness that statelessness persisted in the Hill Tamil community in Sri Lanka helped to spur reforms. • A new law in 2003 provided for the automatic grant of nationality to some individuals and the chance to acquire nationality by declaration to others, with facilitated procedures for the acquisition of proof of nationality. • UNHCR collaborated with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Ceylon Workers Congress to launch a nationality campaign that resulted in the distribution of documentation confirming Sri Lankan nationality to 190,000 Hill Tamils. • Key elements of the nationality campaign included extensive awareness-raising and media outreach in local languages. A corps of volunteers was trained to conduct the campaign, while mobile clinics were deployed to provide legal advice to the affected populations and collect application forms for processing by the Government. • UNHCR and a broad range of stakeholders undertook follow-up activities to ensure Hill Tamils received documentation confirming their Sri Lankan citizenship and to promote their social and economic integration into Sri Lankan society. • Greater awareness of statelessness resulted in more legislative reform aimed at reducing statelessness among other groups in Sri Lanka. U N H C R > G P P A C T I O N 1 : R E S O LV I N G E X I S T I N G M A J O R S I T U AT I O N S O F S TAT E L E S S N E S S